Tasseomancy

There are secrets written in unexpected places. For Clara Chernos, who fled to Canada to escape the Russian pogroms of the 19th Century, the future could be read from the bottom of a tea cup, spilling its secrets to those who knew the language. Through tasseomancy, or tea-leaf reading, even something as small and simple as the remains of a drink spoke to a grander truth.

Like their great-great grandmother Clara, Romy and Sari Lightman seem to have tapped into a secret world. When they began performing together as Ghost Bees, their music was a hauntingly lovely take on folk music, full of cobwebbed corners and dilapidated beauty. It was captivating but incomplete. In the coming years, they would embrace new musical textures, perform as part of gothic electronic project Austra, and expand to a four-member ensemble, taking their new name from grandmother Clara's practice. But while their sound has become more full, it is no less strange, weaving folk, electronic and experimental influences into a singular blend. Their world is one steeped in history and in mystery; listen closely with an open mind and there's no telling what you might learn.